Clint Eastwood is an American actor, director, and producer known for his iconic performances in western and action films, as well as his critically acclaimed work as a filmmaker. Born on May 31, 1930, in San Francisco, California, Eastwood began his career in the 1950s as a contract player for Universal Studios, appearing in a number of B-movies and television shows.
Eastwood’s big break came in 1964 with his role as the Man With No Name in Sergio Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars,” which was followed by two sequels and established him as a major star. He went on to appear in a number of iconic films, including “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966), “Dirty Harry” (1971), and “Unforgiven” (1992), which he also directed and won the Academy Award for Best Director.
You May Also Like: Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes (Pessimistic Views On Life)
Throughout his career, Eastwood has been known for his tough-guy persona, as well as his willingness to take on controversial or challenging roles. He has also become known as a highly respected filmmaker, directing and producing a number of critically acclaimed movies, including “Million Dollar Baby” (2004), “Gran Torino” (2008), and “American Sniper” (2014).
In addition to his work in film, Eastwood has also been involved in politics, serving as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, from 1986 to 1988 and supporting the Republican Party. He has also been involved in various philanthropic causes, including the establishment of the Eastwood Ranch Foundation, which works to promote animal welfare.
Similar Post: Audre Lorde Quotes About Racism, Sexism & Homophobia
Despite his many achievements, Eastwood has remained notoriously private, rarely granting interviews or discussing his personal life. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors and filmmakers of his generation, and his contributions to the world of film have had a lasting impact on the industry.
From life lessons to political insights, his words have the power to inspire and provoke thought. Explore these captivating Clint Eastwood quotes about life and politics.
Famous Clint Eastwood Quotes
1. “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome!”
2. “Self-respect leads to self-discipline.”
3. “You change as the years go by. The more knowledge you get, the more things change in your life and circumstances change.”
4. “Go ahead, make my day.”
5. “They say all marriages are made in heaven, but so are thunder and lightning.”
6. “Tomorrow is promised to no one.”
7. “It’s not about you. It’s about them.”
8. “Always keep your ego in check and not be afraid to listen. Listening is a great art form.”
9. “If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.”
10. “Keep your eyes on the horizon and your nose to the wind.”
Check Out: Ayn Rand Quotes Self-Interest And Individual Achievement
11. “A good man always knows his limitations.”
12. “There’s a rebel lying deep in my soul. Anytime anybody tells me the trend is such and such, I go the opposite direction. I hate the idea of trends. I hate imitation; I have a reverence for individuality.”
13. “You see, in this world, there’s two kinds of people, my friend – those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig.”
14. “Libertarian: everyone leaves everyone else alone.”
15. “You should never give up your inner self.”
16. “I have a very strict gun control policy: if there’s a gun around, I want to be in control of it.”
17. “I tried being reasonable, I didn’t like it.”
18. “It’s always fun to talk about jazz.”
19. “The reason I still work at this stage of life is because I enjoy learning something new each day.”
20. “There’s a rebel lying deep in my soul.”
More Quotes: B. F. Skinner Quotes on Learning
21. “You have to feel confident. If you don’t, then you’re going to be hesitant and defensive, and there’ll be a lot of things working against you.”
22. “What I think the mentor gets is the great satisfaction of helping somebody along, helping somebody take advantage of an opportunity that maybe he or she did not have.”
23. “If you think it’s going to rain, it will.”
24. “Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.”
Clint Eastwood Quotes About Life
25. “My whole life has been one big improvisation.”
26. “Participating in a gun buy-back program because you think that criminals have too many guns is like having yourself castrated because you think your neighbors have too many kids.”
27. “Fate pulls you in different directions.”
28. “If a person is confident enough in the way they feel, whether it’s an art form or whether it’s just in life, it comes off – you don’t have anything to prove; you can just be who you are.”
29. “Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn’t have messed with? That’s me.”
30. “When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn’t out collecting for the Red Cross.”
Find More: Bad Bunny Quotes About Identity, Politics And Social Justice
31. “It’s what people know about themselves inside that makes them afraid.”
32. “I mean, I’ve always been a libertarian. Leave everybody alone. Let everybody else do what they want. Just stay out of everybody else’s hair.”
33. “I don’t wanna need you because I can’t have you.”
34. “I am sort of anti-hunting. I don’t put down what anyone wants to do, but it seems to me that killing a creature for fun is not a progressive idea.”
35. “It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.”
36. “Extremism is so easy. You’ve got your position, and that’s it. It doesn’t take much thought. And when you go far enough to the right you meet the same idiots coming around from the left.”
37. “You always want to quit while you are ahead. You don’t want to be like a fighter who stays too long in the ring until you’re not performing at your best.”
38. “A Love like this happens but once in a lifetime.”
39. “One day we will look back and realize that the Barack Obama Presidency was the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people.”
Interesting Quotes: Benito Mussolini Quotes About War And Nationalism
40. “Nobody, I mean nobody, puts ketchup on a hot dog.”
Clint Eastwood Quotes About Respect
41. “Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.”
42. “I don’t see myself as conservative, but I’m not ultra-leftist. You build a philosophy of your own. I like the libertarian view, which is to leave everyone alone. Even as a kid, I was annoyed by people who wanted to tell everyone how to live.”
43. “A lot of people are bored of all the political correctness.”
44. “I keep working because I learn something new all the time.”
45. “Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it.”
46. “The most gentle people in the world are macho males, people who are confident in their masculinity and have a feeling of well-being in themselves. They don’t have to kick in doors, mistreat women, or make fun of gays.”
47. “I try to stick to a vegan diet heavy on fruit and vegetables.”
48. “If a person doesn’t change, there’s something really wrong with him.”
49. “I was drafted during the Korean War.”
50. “I don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it’s going to rain, it will.”
More Thoughts: Bette Davis Quotes Worth Reading and Sharing.
51. “The more time you have to think things through, the more you have to screw it up.”
52. “Abuse of power isn’t limited to bad guys in other nations. It happens in our own country if we’re not vigilant.”
53. “Crimes against children are the most heinous crime. That, for me, would be a reason for capital punishment because children are innocent and need the guidance of an adult society.”
54. “Dying ain’t much of a living, boy.”
55. “You have to teach yourself to act but Michael Chekhov will give you the necessary tools – and for me, Psychological Gesture and Centers are extremely valuable They work like a charm. I’ve used them all along and still do.”
Clint Eastwood Quotes About Politics
56. “My wife and I are both Libertarian; she was a Democrat and I was a Republican, and we both met in the middle somewhere.”
57. “To me, life is like the back nine in golf. Sometimes you play better on the back nine. You may not be stronger, but hopefully you’re wiser. And if you keep most of your marbles intact, you can add a note of wisdom to the coming generation.”
58. “When I was young there was no respect for the young, and now that I am old there is no respect for the old.”
59. “You take the work seriously, you don’t take yourself seriously. You keep that straight and you’ll do well the rest of your life.”
60. “I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we – we own this country. We – we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.”
Wise Words: Blaise Pascal Quotes About Human Nature And Faith
61. “Let’s take the work seriously, and not ourselves seriously.”
62. “I pay tribute to the writing always. The writer is a creative artist and the director is an interpretive artist and the actors are interpretive. You take zero and make it into something, that’s always amazing to me.”
63. “I’m a firm believer in research, but I’m also a firm believer in utilizing the instincts that are within your soul or in your body or in your stomach, wherever they reside.”
64. “I never expect anything. I am always amazed at why anybody goes to any movie or why anybody doesn’t go to any movie. Any movie you make, you make it because you’re hoping somebody wants to see it, but you never know.”
65. “When I look back on my life, I don’t have regrets about what I didn’t do. If I’d become a musician, it could have ruined my life.”
66. “I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.”
67. “As you get older, you’re not afraid of doubt. Doubt isn’t running the show. You take out all the self-agonizing.”
68. “Once a man has some money, peace begins to sound good to him.”
69. “Whether you like it or not, you’re forced to come to the realization that death is out there. But I don’t fear death, I’m a fatalist. I believe when it’s your time, that’s it. It’s the hand you’re dealt.”
70. “There’s really no way to teach you how to act, but there is a way to teach you how to teach yourself to act. That’s kind of what it is; once you learn the little tricks that work for you, pretty soon you find yourself doing that.”
Click For More Quotes: Brian Clough Quotes On Teamwork, Perseverance And Dedication
71. “The prospect of dating someone in her twenties becomes less appealing as you get older. At some point in your fife, your tolerance level goes down and you realize that, with someone much younger, there’s nothing really to talk about.”
Clint Eastwood Deep Quotes
72. “Take your work seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously.”
73. “I’ve never met a genius. A genius to me is someone who does well at something he hates. Anybody can do well at something he loves – it’s just a question of finding the subject.”
74. “You have to be realistic about where you are in life and enjoy it.”
75. “I’d like to be a bigger and more knowledgeable person ten years from now than I am today. I think that for all of us as we grow older, we must discipline ourselves to continue expanding, broadening, learning, keeping our minds active and open.”
76. “Kids piercing themselves, piercing their tongues, what kind of masochism is that? Is it to show you can just take it?”
77. “I like the inspiration of the first take.”
78. “An awful lot of good movies have gone unrecognized, and an awful lot of bad movies have had tremendous recognition. As long as you keep that in mind, you are never really disappointed.”
79. “Let’s not go and ruin it by thinking too much.”
80. “People have lost their sense of humor. In former times, we constantly made jokes about different races.”
Read Also: Carl Sagan Quotes About Cosmos, Universe And Science
81. “Winning the election is a good-news, bad-news kind of thing. Okay, now you’re the mayor. The bad news is, now you’re the mayor.”
82. “Of course we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party. Kind of a grin with a body behind it.”
83. “There’s only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is I’ll get married again.”
84. “I love every aspect of the creation of motion pictures and I guess I am committed to it for life.”
85. “My wife is my closest friend. Sure, I’m attracted to her in every way possible, but that’s not the answer. Because I’ve been attracted to other people, and I couldn’t stand ’em after a while.”
86. “When you hang a man, you better look at him.”
87. “Things always look different from higher up.”
88. “Most people are afraid of change. But if you look at it as something you can always count on, then it can be a comfort.”
89. “The reason I don’t retire is that I learn something new every day. The brain has to be exercised the same as the rest of the body. It’s about expanding, constantly pushing yourself.”
90. “I’m interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.”
You May Also Like: Corrie Ten Boom Quotes About Love, Faith and God
91. “There are two kinds of people in this world. ‘I’ people and ‘we’ people. I’ve always tried to be a ‘we’ person.”
92. “Buzzards got to eat, same as the worms.”
93. “I’m just a kid – I’ve got a lot of stuff to do yet.”
94. “When you’re an actor, you’re so busy: people are always coming up to you and pulling your collar, making sure that things fit, brushing your hair and you’re always being yanked up, so finally when you’re behind a camera, you’re just a slob.”
95. “I never look back and think too much about my films. I’ve done some work I’ve been proud of over the years but which of them is my favourite I really don’t know. I could say the last one. I’ve had little jumps in my career like Unforgiven possibly.”
96. “The innocence of childhood is like the innocence of a lot of animals.”
97. “I’m always trying to tackle subjects that tax me and make me think. That’s the key to staying young at heart. The brain has to be exercised the same as the rest of the body.”
98. “The country has come a long way in race relations, but the pendulum swings so far back. Everyone wants to be so sensitive.”
99. “What do you want me to tell Romney? I can’t tell him to do that. I can’t tell him to do that to himself. You’re crazy. You’re absolutely crazy. You’re getting as bad as Biden.”
100. “Politicians have to make unpopular decisions. Schwarzenegger is going to understand the nature of his job. I wish him good luck, he’s going to need it. It’s going to be difficult for him.”